The food allowed to the prisoners at Andersonville, according to the
statements of the prisoners and other witnesses, was from two to four
ounces of bacon, and from four to twelve ounces of corn bread daily;
sometimes a half pint to a pint of bean, pea, or sweet potato soup, of
doubtful value. Vegetables were unknown. Thus giving a total weight of
solid food, per diem, of six to sixteen ounces of solid food. The amount
was not constant: some days the prisoners were entirely without food, as
was the case at Belle Isle and Salisbury. Neither was the deficiency
afterwards made good. The amount given was oftener less than ten ounces
than more.
The contrast furnished by the dietaries of our own military prisons, of
those of the British hulks (so much cursed during the last war), or by the
food given by the Algerine pirates to their prisoners and slaves, gives
rise to terrible convictions as to the regard the rebel authorities placed
upon the lives of their prisoners. The United States allowed to the rebel
prisoners held by them thirty-eight ounces of solid food at first; but
afterwards, in June, 1864, they reduced the ration to thirty-four and a
half ounces per day. The range of articles composing the ration was the
same as with our own troops, the exception being in the weight in bread.
In the Dartmoor prison in England, where our men were confined by the
English, when taken prisoners during the last war, and of which so much
cruelty has been alleged, the authorities allowed to the prisoners for the
first five days in the week 24 ounces of coarse brown bread, 8 ounces of
beef, 4 ounces of barley, 1/3 ounce of salt, 1/3 ounce of onions, and 16
ounces of turnips daily (or more than 50 ounces of solid food); and for
the remaining two days the usual allowance of bread was given with 16
ounces of pickled fish. The daily allowance to our men, at the Melville
Island prison, at Halifax, during the last war, was 16 ounces of bread, 16
ounces of beef, and one gill of peas; the American agent furnishing
coffee, sugar, potatoes, and tobacco. The allowance on the noted Medway
hulks was 8 ounces of beef, 24 ounces of bread, and one gill of barley,
daily, for five days; and 16 ounces of codfish, 16 ounces potatoes, or 16
ounces of smoked herring, the remaining two days of the week. Furthermore,
in addition to these generous allowances of the British people, it can be
said that the quality of the food was almost always excellent.
The writer, with one exception, knows of no dietary to compare with that
adopted, or made use of without the formality of adoption, by the rebel
authorities in the treatment of their prisoners.
This exception is found in ancient history, which Plutarch has handed down
to us. The Athenians, captured at the siege of Syracuse, were placed in
the stone quarries of Ortygia, and fed upon one pint of barley and half a
pint of water daily. Most of them perished from this treatment.